BOSTON (Ticker) -- Shaquille O'Neal missed another game and Kobe
Bryant missed a lot of shots.

With O'Neal on the bench and Bryant off his game, the Los
Angeles Lakers suffered their worst loss of the season, a 99-81
setback to the Boston Celtics, who clinched their first playoff
berth in seven years.
"That was a good way to celebrate making the playoffs," Celtics
coach Jim O'Brien said.

O'Neal, bothered all season by an arthritic toe, sat out his
second straight game with a sprained right wrist. The superstar
center's absence clearly was felt as Los Angeles managed just
24 points in the paint.

Bryant, who nearly picked up the slack for Shaq in Wednesday's
loss at New Jersey, was not up to the task in this one. He made
just 5-of-25 shots as the Lakers were a season-low 34 percent
(28-of-82) from the field.

"It was a tough shooting night," Bryant said. "The ball didn't
want to stay down. They were pretty wide-open looks, but they
weren't staying down."

"There are some nights you can't shoot the ball," Lakers coach
Phil Jackson added. "Their defense kept us on the outside. We
had open looks, but we didn't make them. We didn't have any
second-chance opportunites in the lane."

Los Angeles held its only lead at 2-0 and trailed by as many as
23 points. It tied a season low for points in a half (33) and
set a new low for points in a game.

The Lakers also lost by 18 points at Minnesota on January 11
(120-102) and at San Antonio on March 20 (108-90). They dropped
to 7-8 without O'Neal this season.

Paul Pierce scored 33 points for the Celtics (44-32), who are in
the playoffs for the first time since 1995, the year they
closed Boston Garden. The Celtics swept the Lakers for the
first time since the 1991-92 season.

"Our goal is to finish out the season with the best record as
possible," Pierce said. "We're still trying to secure the home
court (for the first round)."

Pierce pushed his season total to 2,005 points, joining John
Havlicek and Larry Bird as the only Celtics to put together
2,000-point seasons.

Pierce scored 17 points in the first half, when Bryant made just
4-of-14 shots. The Lakers trailed by as many as 12 points
before closing to 39-33 at intermission.

"We had 23 points for the longest time," Lakers forward Rick Fox
said. "I think it was 33 at the half. On the road, it's not
going to put you in a position to win, not against a good
defensive team like the Boston Celtics."

The Celtics opened the third quarter with a 10-1 run sparked by
Kenny Anderson, who came off the injured list earlier in the
day. But Bryant, still struggling from the field, made 10 free
throws in the period as the Lakers closed to 59-54 with 1:30
left. "He struggled through the third quarter and he still got
us back in the ballgame," Jackson said.

"Kobe had a poor first half and we knew that he'd probably try
and come out without a lot more aggression in the second half,
so we just wanted to come out with a little aggression of our
own," Pierce said.

In the fourth quarter, the Lakers' poor shooting finally caught
up with them. A 3-pointer by Antoine Walker opened the period
and gave the Celtics a 69-58 lead. The Lakers got no closer.

"The start of the fourth quarter, we're down six, they hit two
threes in a row and push the lead up," Bryant said. "They hit a
couple of more after that and it got pretty ugly from there."

"They came out and really laid it on us in the fourth quarter,"
Jackson added. "They saved their best for last. We couldn't
seem to mount a rally to stay with them in the fourth quarter."

Walker had 20 points, nine rebounds and eight assists and
Anderson had 12 points and nine assists for the Celtics, who
shot 45.5 percent (40-of-88) and held a 49-41 rebounding
advantage. Tony Battie swept a career-high 15 boards.

"I'm happy to be back with my teammates, running and having
fun," Anderson said.

"He's pretty much our only pure point guard on the team and when
you've got him back, everything's going to flow more smoothly,"
Walker said of Anderson. "He's great at controlling the game.
It's good to have him back."

Fox scored 13 points for the Lakers (53-23), who fell 2 1/2
games behind Sacramento in the race for the best record in the
Western Conference. They also are percentage points behind
Dallas.